1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC card that has at least a CPU and semiconductor memory and is capable of providing a plurality of services on one card.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, compact and lightweight IC cards having a built-in semiconductor memory are widely used. One well-known example is the IC card whose main body is the size of a stamp, as shown on the left side in FIG. 16A.
The IC card that is shown on the left side of FIG. 16A has contacts 32 near the edge on one end on the underneath side of the main body 31 of the IC card, which has a built-in semiconductor memory or the like, and these contacts 32 electrically connect the semiconductor memory or the like with an external device; and a slanted cut out part 33 is formed on one of the corners of the flat main body of the IC card 31, and this cut-out part 33 has an identification function in order to prevent inserting the IC card in the wrong way. Moreover, a concave part 34 is formed on one side of the card body 31 in order firmly hold the IC card when inserted into an external device, and a concave part 35 is formed on the other side in order to allow the write-enable/disable switch 36, which sets whether data can or cannot be written to the semiconductor memory, to freely slide. It is possible to set whether or not to allow data to be written to the semiconductor memory according to the sliding position of the write-enable/disable switch 36.
Here, a multi-purpose IC card that is capable of providing a plurality of services on one card is proposed as the IC card. For example, this is possible by using JavaCard (R), which executes Java (R) processing for IC card and which is advocated by Sun Microsystems, USA.
The multi-purpose IC cards can be used for cards such as credit cards, cash cards, commuter passes, medical-examination cards, insurance card, electronic money, etc. By inserting a multi-purpose IC card into a card holder that is connected to a personal computer, and connecting to the Internet, not only could the card be used to purchase a concert ticket, but that concert ticket itself could be electronically stored on that card, and the multi-purpose card could be used as an electronic ticket at the concert hall.
Even in the case of just a credit function, it is possible to utilize the services from a plurality of credit-service companies with just a single card. The stamp-sized card that is shown on the left side of FIG. 16A can be also used as the multi-purpose IC card. In the explanation below, the IC card is a multi-purpose IC card, so, the multi-purpose IC card will be simply called an IC card unless stated otherwise.
On the other hand, it is desired to make the IC card even more compact. In many cases, the use of IC cards is in portable terminals. For example, in the case of use in a mobile telephone, even stamp-sized IC cards can be considered large.
Therefore, as shown on the right side of the FIG. 16A, an IC card that is half the size of the stamp-sized card is considered. In this case, the size of the card body 37 is made half the size as shown in FIG. 16A, and the rest of the construction is left the same. FIG. 16B shows the shape of the side surface of the IC card shown in FIG. 16A.
However, in the example shown on the right side of FIG. 16A and FIG. 16B, when the length (or width) of the IC card is reduced, there is a possibility that it could be swallowed accidentally by an infant. Moreover, even when there is electrical compatibility with the stamp-sized IC card (left side of FIG. 16A), the shape is different, so when the card is inserted by mistake into a connector of an external device for a stamp-sized IC card, there is a possibility that the IC card could get stuck inside the connector and not be able to be extracted from the device, or there is a possibility that the it will fall inside the external device through a gap in the connector. Therefore, when using an IC card that is half the size of a stamp-sized IC card in a device for a stamp-sized IC card, it is necessary to use an adapter or the like that will make the shape fit the shape of a stamp-sized IC card.
In order to solve the problem mentioned above, a small-volume IC card as shown in FIG. 17 is considered.
This IC card 1 is formed such that the stamp-sized main card body 31 shown on the left side of FIG. 16A is divided into a thick first main-body part 2 and thin main-body part 3; and a first surface side A is continuous from the first main-body part 2 to the second main-body part 3 and is the same flat surface, and the first main-body part 2 protrudes on a second surface side B. Also, similar to as shown in FIG. 16, contacts 4 are formed on one end, a slanted cut-out part 5 is formed on one corner, concave parts 6, 7 are formed on the sides and there is a write-enable/disable switch 8 disposed in the concave part 7.
In other words, by adopting the type of small-volume IC card as shown in FIG. 17, the IC card could become compatible with the conventional stamp-sized IC card.
However, even though the IC card is capable of providing a plurality of services on a single card, it is not possible to determine which services are currently provided by simply looking at the outside of the IC card. Moreover, when that IC card is inserted into a cardholder, determining the provided services becomes even more difficult.
Also, in the case of IC card that has a write-enable/disable switch as described above, there is no card that has a switch for selecting which of the services from the IC card to provide.